Last month at a table in a pub at a golf course in Ireland, three Americans sat at a table, flummoxed by cellular technology, trying to send a picture to the barkeep’s phone. The bartender joked with another Yank sitting alone at the bar, “Irish technology is not the problem.” To which the American quipped, “You have Irish technology, but you don’t have Donald Trump.” The bartender laughed, and one of the other Americans snarled, “He’s better than the (female dog)!”
With his victory, Trump’s legacy – the “crude-ification” of the American electorate – is solidly established. Are all Trump supporters coarse, vulgar, churlish louts? Maybe not, but have you seen the T-shirts people wore to Trump rallies? Have we become a nation of oafs with T-shirts emblazoned with the curse words?
In America, anyone can grow up to become president. Anyone can also grow up to be someone who publicly mocks the disabled, but no one should. And anyone can grow up to talk about the size of his, er, hands at a nationally televised presidential debate, but no one should. It’s not about being politically correct, it is about how a civilized person should or shouldn’t behave in certain contexts.
It is frightening to imagine a Trump inauguration speech, but, taking inspiration from Melania Trump’s speech-writing skills, it might open with: “I have a dream. A tremendous dream. Huge dream. Believe me, it takes a lot of stamina to dream so bigly.”
And the speech might end, “And when this happens, when we allow coarse, vulgar behavior to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will speed up that day when all God’s children will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old spiritual, ‘Louts at last! Louts at Last! Thank God Almighty, we are oafish louts at last!’”
Kevin Devine
Durango
